


congratulations mary, you won !

by yuushi



Category: Kagerou Project
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-27
Updated: 2014-04-27
Packaged: 2018-01-21 01:54:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1533344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuushi/pseuds/yuushi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The snake takes steps to teach Mary that to reset the timeline is, ultimately, in her best interests.</p>
            </blockquote>





	congratulations mary, you won !

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to tumblr.

It was reasonable to assume this man wasn’t Konoha. Oh, sure there were a few obvious tell-tale signs, such as the new black-on-black coloration, the uncharacteristic ear-to-ear grin, and the dan’s blood draping his hands, but let’s look past the obvious.

For instance, Konoha would not, as he is now, kneel before Mary as she sobbed into her hands, reassuringly thumb her cheek and in a particularly dulcet tone ask: “My dear master, at this rate, all of them will die.” He would also not gesture out to the twisted-limb corpses of roughly half the group as he continued, “However, there are still some left. There is even still that boy.”

But this man did, and so Mary’s breath skipped as her eyes jerked her head up and her eyes tore into the bodies in search of some green. And it was true; that boy whom she referred to as Seto barely breathes but still lives. This she could only tell by holding her gaze on him for a very long time, the air so still, to see his chest rise and fall, however labored, once, twice, and again and again. Yes, he was alive, he was alive; but now what? Just what was the boy not Konoha trying to say? Her eyes shake as they turn their sights back to the boy who was pointedly not Konoha, who smiles the patient smile of an adult used to dealing with children. This was another giveaway, as Konoha was still a child himself, unlike this thing shifting its muscles underneath his skin.

But we digress. With steps particularly goal-oriented unlike the dawdling and wandering manner of Konoha, the thing in his skin gets up and strides over to the mass of children both dead and halfway there, jerking up with a deft motion Konoha’s former green-clad friend, dangling this Seto by the wrist several inches off the ground. Incidentally, there was the crackling sound of Seto’s shoulder dislocating accompanied by a scream, which caused Mary’s eyes to widen and her body to shake, and here it must be admitted that this was a little bit like Konoha, as Konoha was also not very cautious with his own strength.

The thing in the skin returns to his mistress and drops the boy Seto in a heap who collapses and does little more than tremble for several moments, and when he makes a scraping sound in his throat that is a bit like an choked apology, a heavy rain pours down her cheeks again and numbs her paralysis, and she gathers the mess in her arms, against her chest, arms tight but grip ginger because even the slightest mistake could pierce one of his broken ribs into his lungs, and that would be utterly unfortunate.

She looks back up at the thing. She looks up at him, and it smiles. It spreads out his arms as though this were a grand orchestra of his devising and with humble bombast he answers her gaze: “If you will allow me this proposition, I am very certain he can be kept alive, and I shall ensure the both of you shall live at the very least adequately, together and unharmed. And perhaps it may be now that you realize his life is prone to ending, as it has been all along, and you shall find yourself time to think what is to be done about extending it, or extending your time together, if you so desire; but all that shall come later, when you are comfortable and safe.”

Mary swallows thickly, Seto’s bones sounding gravelly as she tightens her hold of him against her. “But?” She swallows again. “But?”

It drops an arm, the other going to its chest, and it bows to her. And here we have the strongest proof that thing creature is not at all Konoha, because Konoha had no sense of etiquette or theatre or politesse like so, and he would not be so casually eloquent when he says: “But all the rest shall die.”

Mary’s breath shudders, and her hands tremble cold. There was almost nothing like Konoha inside this thing; but, like Konoha, she knew it would not lie to her.


End file.
